Jack stayed with Kate all day. People came and went, seeing how she was, but Jack's only movement came from making Kate more comfortable. Shortly after Sun returned, Kate slipped from her whimpers into a restless sleep. Her unconsciousness put Jack on edge even more. Luckily, her fever lessened, so he was more inclined to let her sleep. Outside the cave, he could hear the words of the other survivors as they ate their dinner. Occassionally a few laughs reached his ear-shot. He listened to them, but the voices were so overlapped that he could barely tell whom was speaking to whom.

"I can't believe you did that!"

"You know what, I could really go for some ketchup with this boar."

"And then she said 'I think of you as a brother'. I mean honestly, oldest excuse in the book."

"It's nearly Christmas you know, back in civilisation."

The shadows of two people standing near the caves edge caught his eye. He couldn't distort the shapes, but he knew that they were female. They looked like they were about to come in, and Jack was in no mood to hear what people needed right now, so he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. He listened intently to their voices.

"Jack-? Oh he's asleep." That was Shannon.

"Never mind, we'll leave him some food next to him." The second voice belonged to Claire. He felt them approach, and remained still as they placed a plate of food beside him. He could smell the boar drifting up to him. "I bet they're both hungry after the day they've had." Claire's voice got quieter, and Jack realised that she was moving away.

"It doesn't seem fair, does it?" Shannon said. "I mean, they went through so much before they were together. I would have thought that it would have stopped now that they've got each other."

One of them sighed, he didn't know which one. "Things were just looking up as well." Claire agreed. "What are we being so negative for? She's going to be back to normal soon."

"How do you know that?" Shannon asked.

"Because she has to." Claire said. "I don't think Jack could bear things without her. He wouldn't just be losing the Kate he knows, he'd be losing his child as well."

Jack heard their voices get quieter until eventually they disappeared altogether. He opened his eyes again, which were now fighting back tears from what he had just heard. The idea that he was losing Kate day by day was heartbreaking enough, let alone the fact ontop of this that his child was also in jeapordy. He looked down at Kate, who was still resting in his arms. He smoothed her hair, placing a kiss on her forehead. God, he missed her. Without even meaning to, he took himself back to the night before this had happened.

They had just announced Kate's pregnancy, and people had gone back to talking amongst themselves while the pair sat with their usual group; Shannon, Sayid, Charlie, Claire, and Aaron. Kate was leaning back in his lap, much like she was now, with her head on his shoulder, and every now and then drifting out of the conversation to nuzzle against his neck. He held his arms around her tightly, one hand subconsciously resting on her stomach protectively, and every word exchanged between them was in sweet whispers. Although they were all used to their public displays of affection, Jack and Kate had never looked more in love.

Soon, Kate had fallen silent, and eventually said that she was tired, and disappeared off to the cave that she and Jack shared. Jack watched her go, not listening to Charlie who was telling him something about a DriveShaft tour, and realised from her retreating back that her shoulders were sagging with defeat. Frowing, he got up to follow her.

Inside the cave, Kate was sitting on the side of their makeshift bed, her legs brought up to her knees and her arms wrapped around them loosely. Jack sat beside her, with an arm around her shoulders. Immediately, her head found his shoulder for a few seconds, before she turned and rested her head in his lap, laying out on the bed.

"You're scared, aren't you?" Jack observed quietly, combing through a section of her curly hair with his fingers.

She was silent for a while, trying to force herself into admitting the hardest thing for her. "Yeah." She said, almost in a whisper, after a while. Then she repeated it louder. "Yeah, I'm terrified." She was avoiding Jack's gaze, looking down at their entwined hands that rested just abover her midsection.

"It's Ok to be scared." Jack told her, and she shook her head, disagreeing with him. "No one's going to think less of you if you are."

"Aren't they?" She said in disbelief.

"You seriously think that Claire wasn't the least bit scared when she found out?" Jack asked.

"She didn't know that she was going to give birth in the middle of the jungle though." Kate pointed out.

"But she did it anyway." Kate looked up at him finally, their eyes connecting. "Kate, if it's any help, I'm scared too." He admitted, and he saw the fear show in her eyes. "But that doesn't mean anything. Just because we're out here, doesn't mean that I'm not going to take care of you. It just means that I'm going to go to every lengths possible to make sure that you and our baby are healthy the whole way through this."

She was silent again, looking down at their hands again. "But what if something goes wrong? What if something happens that you can't fix?"

Jack moved their hands so that his was sandwiching Kate's between him and her stomach, right above where their baby was growing inside of her. She felt a stirring that she always felt when they did this, a stirring of emotions; excitement, fear, panick, love; and looked up at Jack again. He leaned down to kiss her softly. "Nothing is going to take this away from us." He assured her. "This is our happiness, our family."

"And if something tries to take it away?" He knew that she was referring to the Others, or to Danielle.

"Then I'll fight them off with a big stick." He said, managing to draw a laugh from her. He kissed her again. "Don't worry, I'll never let anything happen to you."

"Jack, Jack! Jack, wake up!"

His eyelids opened slowly, and it took a few moments for him to realise that he had fallen asleep. Sitting up gradually, a hand shot up and held him steady.

"Don't move, you'll wake her up."

He looked up to see Sun looking down at him, a broad smile on her face.

"Is she Ok?" He asked in a whisper.

"She's more than Ok." Sun said.

"Has the fever gone?"

"Jack, maybe you should look at her."

Jack frowned at Sun in confusion. He shifted his body so that he was at a better angle to look at her, when he realised something. Kate's body had gotten quite bigger through the night. She mumbled incoherantly with the movement of his body, and held on tighter to him to keep him still. Her arm, rather than stretching straight over his stomach, was long enough to bend at her elbow and lay on his chest instead. Turning his head, he could see that her hair wasn't longer, but there was a lot more of it that tickled beneath his chin. Their lower legs were entwined as they lay together, and Jack let his head fall back onto the pillow beneath him.

"She's back." He said breathlessly, the shock setting in. "She's back."